Description

Is the internet really powerful enough to allow a sixteen year old to become the biggest threat to world peace since Adolf Hitler? Are we all now susceptible to cyber-criminals who can steal from us without even having to leave the comfort of their own armchairs? These are fears which have been articulated since the popular development of the internet, yet criminologists have been slow to respond to them. Consequently, questions about what cybercrimes are, what their impacts will be and how we respond to them remain largely unanswered.

Organised into three sections, this book engages with the various criminological debates that are emerging over cybercrime. The first section looks at the general problem of crime and the internet. It then describes what is understood by the term 'cybercrime' by identifying some of the challenges for criminology. The second section explores the different types of cybercrime and their attendant problems. The final section contemplates some of the challenges that cybercrimes give rise to for the criminal justice system.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Crime and the Internet 2. Crime Futures: The challenge of crime in the information age 3. Telecommunication Fraud in the Digital Age: The converging of technologies 4. Between the Risk and the Reality Falls the Shadow: Evidence and urban legends in computer fraud 5. Hacktivism: In search of lost ethics? 6. Last of the Rainmacs? Thinking about pornography in cyberspace 7. Criminalising Online Speech to 'Protect' the Young: What are the benefits and costs? 8. Controlling Illegal and Harmful Content on the Internet 9. Cyber-stalking: Tackling harassment in the internet 10. The Language of Cybercrime 11. Maintaining Order and Law on the Internet 12. Policing Hi-tech Crime in the Global Context: The role of trans-national policy networks 13. The Criminal Courts On-line